Can a newsletter contain affiliate links? Seven tools’ terms, read
It is repeated online that email tools ban affiliate marketing. We read seven tools’ own terms of service on 13 September 2026: none bans an affiliate link in your own newsletter — three ban an account that is nothing but a commission machine.
The short answer
Yes. We read seven email tools’ terms of service and help pages on 13 September 2026. None bans an affiliate link in a newsletter whose content is your own. Three — MailerLite, Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign — ban affiliate marketing, but define it as an account whose messages are nothing but commission links. The other three have no rule on affiliate links at all, and EmailOctopus explicitly allows them.
The claim “email tools ban affiliate links” arises because the terms’ prohibited list is read but the same service’s help article that clarifies it is not. The same goes for Amazon: its programme policy has allowed links in opted-in emails, although many guides still say the opposite. Below are the terms tool by tool, the programmes’ own rules and what the advertising regulators require of the message’s marking.
- You want terms that do not restrict affiliate links at all → Brevo: the terms of service and the prohibited content list do not mention affiliate links; the ban covers get-rich promises and purchased lists. Try it free
- You want explicit permission written in the help pages → EmailOctopus: the help page allows the content when the list is collected yourself — affiliate marketing is on the extra-scrutiny industry list, so describe the account’s nature yourself. Try it free (ad)
- The newsletter is part of a sales funnel and courses → Systeme.io: article 11 of the terms bans only pornography, gambling, illegal products, violence and fraud; there is no rule on affiliate links. Try it free (ad)
The question has three answers, and all of them have to be “yes” at the same time: the email tool’s terms of service, the affiliate programme’s own rules and the law. They prohibit different things for different reasons, and most answers circulating online mix up the first and the second.
1. What the seven tools’ terms say
The email tool’s concern is not the link but the shared sending infrastructure: if one customer produces spam flags, the same IP address and domain suffer for everyone. That is why the terms talk about the origin of the list and the content of the message, not the type of link. The table was read from each service’s own terms or help page on 13 September 2026.
| Tool | Affiliate link in a newsletter | What the terms say |
|---|---|---|
| Brevo | No restriction | Annex 7 of the terms (Acceptable Use Policy) does not mention affiliate links. Prohibited: “get rich fast” promises, passive income without work, pyramid schemes, purchased and scraped lists. Lead brokering (“lead generation services”) requires prior approval from support. |
| EmailOctopus | Allowed | “We don’t expressly prohibit any content from legitimate industries as long as people on your mailing list gave you consent to contact them.” Affiliate marketing is on the industry list that gets extra scrutiny in an account review. |
| Systeme.io | No restriction | Article 11 of the terms bans pornography, gambling, illegal products, violence, exploitation and fraud. There is no rule on affiliate links; the service has its own affiliate programme management. |
| GetResponse | No restriction | Chapter VI of the terms and the prohibited products list (in force from 11 August 2026) do not mention affiliate links. Prohibited: “make-money-fast schemes”, chain letters, pyramid schemes, purchased lists. |
| MailerLite | Allowed with a condition | Section 13: “Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Links are two different things.” Marketing banned, links allowed when they “are clearly presented as offers from another company” and fit your own content. |
| Mailchimp | Allowed with a condition | The acceptable use policy (26 September 2025) lists “Affiliate marketing” as a prohibited industry. The help article clarifies: links are “usually fine” when “your main message isn’t centered around affiliate links” and the address is not on a blocklist. |
| ActiveCampaign | Allowed with a condition | The acceptable use policy bans “affiliate marketing” content. The help page (18 November 2025): links allowed when they are not the main point of the message, the message is not sent only for another product and the subject is not getting rich. |
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Sources read 13 September 2026: Brevo, Acceptable Use Policy · EmailOctopus, Is my content allowed? · Systeme.io, Terms and conditions · GetResponse, Terms of Service · MailerLite, Terms of Use §13 · Mailchimp, Acceptable Use Policy and About Affiliate Links in Mailchimp · ActiveCampaign, Acceptable Use Policy and Adding affiliate links in ActiveCampaign emails.
The line runs at purpose, not at the link
The three conditional cases are worth reading verbatim, because they are exactly what creates the misconception. MailerLite defines the prohibited affiliate marketing like this: “the promotion of multiple referral links from various third-party companies purely to generate commission-based income” — promoting several companies’ links purely for the commission. In the same section: “You may include affiliate links in your campaigns, provided they are clearly presented as offers from another company.”
Mailchimp’s and ActiveCampaign’s acceptable use policies list just “affiliate marketing” among prohibited content, and many guides stop there. Both help articles open up the term the same way MailerLite does: Mailchimp calls an affiliate link one that points to a third party “but do not market on behalf of that third party”, and ActiveCampaign says directly: “Yes, you are allowed to include affiliate links in your marketing emails, with some restrictions.”
The pattern is the same at all of them. A newsletter in which you say which tool you use and why, and link to it with a commission link, is content. A newsletter whose every message is a list of offers from different shops is the activity the terms ban — and it is also the activity that produces the bounces and spam flags the ban exists for.
2. The affiliate programme’s own rules are a second layer
That the email tool allows the link does not mean the programme that issued the link allows it in email. Every programme sets its own channel rule, and it is read from the programme’s agreement, not the tool’s terms.
Amazon Associates is an example where the online answer is outdated. The programme policies (updated 14 April 2026) ban links in printed material, e-books, mailings and verbal sales — and say right after: “You may include Special Links in emails, SMS and direct messaging from your social media Sites; provided, that such communications are solicited (i.e., opted into by the receiving customer)” (Amazon Associates Program Policies, read 13 September 2026). Email is therefore an allowed channel when the list is opted in. Guides that still say “Amazon bans email” were written on the basis of the old agreement or copied from each other.
Of this comparison’s programmes we read five from public terms. Systeme.io’s affiliate agreement does not ban email; it requires compliance with the laws on sending unsolicited email. GetResponse’s programme terms prohibit sending “unsolicited emails or any communication without the recipient’s proper consent” and give the right to close the account on reasonable suspicion of it. Brevo’s programme terms have no email clause; they refer to Brevo’s own anti-spam policy and prohibit buying brand keywords. MailerLite’s programme terms do not restrict the channel, but payout requires at least two different sales.
ActiveCampaign is the most precise case. The programme terms (2 September 2025) count email communication explicitly among the places where the link may be put — and in the same list prohibit “spam or send bulk-emails including Links”. An opted-in newsletter where the link is part of the content is an email campaign the agreement allows; a bare link send to the whole list is prohibited bulk mail. The same programme also bans all paid advertising and keyword buying. We have not read Mailchimp’s programme, because we are not in it.
The rule in every one we read is the same as at the tools: the channel is not the problem, the lack of consent is.
3. The law: consent and disclosure
The third layer applies to every sender regardless of tool. Two things suffice: the consent rule and the disclosure rule.
Consent. Article 13(1) of the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC), written into every EU country’s national law, allows email direct marketing to a natural person only with prior consent. An affiliate link changes this in neither direction — it is the same requirement every terms of service and programme agreement we read repeats. The article and its existing-customer exception are covered in the GDPR article.
Identifiability. The UK Advertising Standards Authority’s guidance Online affiliate marketing (22 March 2023) says affiliate content “should be obviously identifiable as advertising upfront”, for example by “including an identifier, for example ‘Ad’ … in such a way that it is clear to consumers before they click through” — and for mixed content: “If only some of the products in a post are affiliate linked … it needs to be obvious which links and associated content are advertising.”
The US Federal Trade Commission says the same in its Endorsement Guides FAQ: an “affiliate link” label alone is not enough because readers do not understand it means payment, “‘Paid link’ right next to an affiliate link should be an adequate disclosure”, and “The closer the disclosure is to your recommendation, the better” — a general notice on a separate page is not enough if the recommendation and the link are elsewhere. A newsletter has the same structure as a blog post: a notice at the top of the message and a mark next to each link.
Quotations: ASA, Online affiliate marketing, and FTC, Endorsement Guides — What People Are Asking, both read 12 September 2026. The ASA guidance applies to the UK and the FTC guidance to the US; EU countries’ consumer authorities set their own wording, but the same principle — commercial intent must be clear at the link — runs through them, and the site’s own marking follows it in every language.
4. How to write the message so that all three are met
One model is enough for all seven tools, because the terms require the same thing in different words.
- Content first, the link inside it. The subject of the message is your observation or advice; the affiliate link is a source or a recommendation in it, not the reason for the message. That meets MailerLite’s “naturally align with your brand’s content”, Mailchimp’s “main message isn’t centered around affiliate links” and ActiveCampaign’s “should not be the primary focus” at the same time.
- “Contains ad links” at the top of the message and a mark next to each link — the same way as on this site (a mark in the link, an explanation at the top of the page). That is the ASA’s “obvious which links … are advertising”, the FTC’s “right next to” and at the same time MailerLite’s “clearly presented as offers from another company”.
- Only a list you collected yourself. All seven ban purchased, rented and scraped lists, and Article 13 requires consent. Double opt-in is the most straightforward proof of it.
- No get-rich promises. Brevo, GetResponse and ActiveCampaign name “get rich” content separately as prohibited. An affiliate link to accounting software is content; a message promising passive income from affiliate links is exactly what the lists ban.
- Describe the account’s nature yourself if the service reviews it. EmailOctopus says directly that affiliate marketing gets extra scrutiny in an account review. A note in the account description — “a newsletter about my own content, some links are marked ad links” — saves a round with support.
When the answer is no
In three situations affiliate links should not go into a newsletter, and none of them depends on the tool.
- If the list was not collected with consent. Then the problem is not the link but the whole send, and it breaches both the law and every terms of service we read.
- If the programme bans the channel. Read the agreement before the first message. Programmes that restrict email or require prior approval of the channel exist — but Amazon is no longer among them, so do not trust a guide, read the agreement.
- If there is nothing else in the message. A bare list of offers is the activity all three conditional tools ban, and to the reader it is an advertisement, not a newsletter. Then the right instrument is an ad, not a newsletter.
Who none of these suits
If your business is specifically an offer digest — many shops, many links, no content of your own — MailerLite, Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign can close the account on the basis of their terms, and Brevo and GetResponse reserve the right in their terms to close an account that produces more bounces and complaints than average. Such a list needs its own sending infrastructure or a service built for it. This comparison knows no such service, and it does not belong in the email marketing cluster.